Sunday, November 4, 2007

Well yesterday was the Vulcan Run 10k.I couldn't sleep that well the night before because I was paranoid about oversleeping. I woke up an hour before my alarm clock went off so I just laid in bed for a while. I finally got up and took a shower and got all my stuff together and just kind of waited until I could wake Eric up and tell him to get ready. We left at 6:30 in the morning and it was still dark outside. We got to the race site and went and to the finish line to take a group picture with the group I've been training with. We hung out there for a while and then Eric went with me to the port-a-potty line. I really had to pee and didn't want to race like that.

After that, we went to the starting line and had to wait for about 15 minutes for the start. I was pretty cold since it was in the late 40s and I was wearing a running skirt and short sleeves. Finally the gun went off and it was time to go. I think it took me about three minutes to actually cross the starting line. Since my problems with knees and blisters the plan was to run 5 minutes and walk 1 until I got to around mile 4 and then run the rest of the way since it's pretty much downhill from there. I remember getting to the 1 mile mark at 12 minutes by my watch which was including the walking. The first water break was at mile 2 I think. I slowed down to walking and took a cup. I didn't really feel like I needed water, but took some anyway just in case. The water tasted like it came out of a fire hydrant, but it was water so I wasn't complaining. I kept up with the run 5 walk 1 which really helped on the big hill around Highland Avenue. There was another water stop at the top of the hill. I got some water and one of the volunteers complimented my running skirt. When I got to 20th Street I knew it was the home stretch. Only a little over one mile to go. I walked down one big hill so that I wouldn't wreck my knees and then ran the rest of the way. At this point I was passing a lot of walkers. It reminded me of how slow I am, but also kind of made me feel good that I was actually passing people.

I rounded the corner to the finish line and saw Eric standing there cheering me on. I also heard my coach yell my name as I crossed the finish. The official results aren't up yet, but the time on my watch said 1 hour 20 minutes.